Humans are omnivores and eat anything they can catch or trap. I know you are writing about the illegal alien children. Successful humans are callous by nature and I will never argue with Darwin and Survival of the Species. The strong survive and the weak perish but find a niche to exploit and the weak flourish.

Okay, what you wrote is not what I was thinking, but what you said gets a discussion going.

Humans are very vulnerable and it is their social skills that made it possible for them to survive. Neanderthals did not have the social skills of those who came out of Africa much later and that is probably why we survived and they did not.

The reason I want to talk about what makes us human is, I think we can make better decisions when we have a better understanding of how our brains develop and work.

It seems clear there's no winner in the nature vs. nurture debate. The actual physical changes in brain size and connectivity resulting from abuse or lack of stimulation, however, do appear to present insurmountable challenges.

We are born human, meaning we are born with the capacity to learn human culture and become a part of it, but clearly other humans must be our teachers. The French scientist's child taking on chimpanzee characteristics proved that. Humans will learn to imitate their closest companions.

Not being raised by human beings as a human being doesn't make one not a human being (in a biological context).

If we're not talking about a biological context, then it pretty much becomes arbitrary as to what is or isn't a human being.

In this case where would we draw the line? Is someone who wasn't raised in an aristocratic family & formally taught etiquette not a human being? Some might argue that the aristocratic types treat everyone else like they're subhuman savages, no different from a wild animal.

We can lose the ability to learn as a result of health & aging problems alone; for example dementia may inhibit or prevent the ability to learn. I don't think it's inconceivable that learning is unlimited, although I have heard that our brains are limited to functioning for 5,000 years (I think that assumes that our brain can never grow).

Humans are omnivores and eat anything they can catch or trap. I know you are writing about the illegal alien children. Successful humans are callous by nature and I will never argue with Darwin and Survival of the Species. The strong survive and the weak perish but find a niche to exploit and the weak flourish.

It seems clear there's no winner in the nature vs. nurture debate. The actual physical changes in brain size and connectivity resulting from abuse or lack of stimulation, however, do appear to present insurmountable challenges.

We are born human, meaning we are born with the capacity to learn human culture and become a part of it, but clearly other humans must be our teachers. The French scientist's child taking on chimpanzee characteristics proved that. Humans will learn to imitate their closest companions.

Humans are omnivores and eat anything they can catch or trap. I know you are writing about the illegal alien children. Successful humans are callous by nature and I will never argue with Darwin and Survival of the Species. The strong survive and the weak perish but find a niche to exploit and the weak flourish.

You describe what a homo sapiens is (i.e. the species); not a human. The question asks us about becoming human

What separates us from being animals is that (most of us) have a conscience and are capable of love, empathy and compassion (which some, of faith, will describe as a soul).

'Survival of the fittest' does not mean that the 'strong' survive; it means that the best adapted survive. Humans have reached their preeminent place in the world because they have in the past and still continue to show the ability to work together - that is true strength.

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